LETTERS: NEW QUARTER HERE; $1 COIN COMING

To the editor:

By now we are all probably pretty familiar with the facelift that our beloved $20 bill has undergone. "Monopoly money" seems to be the most frequently used description. This has left many of us wondering what our Treasury Department has in store for us next.

As of January, we have begun the commemorative quarters from all 50 states. Every state in the United States will eventually have its own design on the reverse, or back, of the quarter. Washington will still be on the obverse, or front, of the coin where he has been since 1932.

The first of the state quarters produced was the Delaware design with the reverse portraying the Colonial patriot, Caesar Rodney, on his horse riding to the independence vote on July 4, 1776.

When the Delaware portion of the state coin program is completed in 10 weeks at the rate of 8 million coins per day, the U.S. Mint will move on to the second phase of the project, the Pennsylvania quarter and the commemorative coins for New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut, in that order. Five new coins will be minted every year until 2008 honoring the states in the order they entered the Union. For the 13 original states, that means the order they ratified the Constitution.

Overall, this new program will cause us all to look a little closer at the change we're carrying. Many of us still carry silver coins, which were discontinued in 1964, and are unaware of it. And did you notice that Susan B. Anthony dollar coin? It appears the U.S. Mint will be producing the Susan B. Anthony in 1999 as well, but only enough to supply the country's demand for the dollar coin until the release of a new dollar coin in 2000.

In January 2000, it is rumored the United States is slated for the new dollar coin portraying Sacajawea, the Shoshone Indian maiden who was vital to Lewis and Clark's discoveries in the unexplored territories of our country.

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin wants to have Sacajawea on the obverse and the American eagle on the reverse, and he wants the coin to be made from a gold-colored alloy to avoid the confusion that the Susan B. Anthony created.

Congressman Michael Castle wishes the new collar coin to portray the Statue of Liberty for the simple fact he feels more Americans would feel more patriotic about Miss Liberty and would be more readily able to accept the new coin.

Castle has asked our General Accounting Office to conduct a survey of potential users of the new coin to see why the Susan B. Anthony failed and what would make the new coin a success, much in the same manner as a manufacturer would conduct a survey to prove its product is better than the last before it is produced and preventing the product from failing.

JEFFREY STEN BROWNE

Cape Girardeau